AUSTRALIANS AT WAR

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Monday, September 27, 2010

At long last, a group of Aboriginal people are to take Australian journalist Andrew Bolt of Rupert Murdoch’s ‘Herald Sun’ newspaper based in Melbourne, Australia, to the Federal Court accusing him of racial vilification. The documents were lodged with the court on 7 September 2010, and the case is due to be heard this coming Wednesday, 29 September 2010.

For years Bolt has been vilifying people who identify themselves as being Aboriginal accusing them of abusing their racial identity in order to receive benefits and awards that are exclusively for Aboriginal people. Bolt seems to think that some people who identify themselves as Aboriginal are ‘too white’ to be Aboriginal. For Bolt, it would seem that the only test of Aboriginality is the colour of ones skin.

The group that are prosecuting the matter are basing their claim about Bolt’s vilification on two articles Bolt had written and that were published in the ‘Herald Sun’ newspaper. The first appeared in Bolt’s Column and blog on 15 April 2009 and was titled ‘White is the New Black’, and the second appeared as an opinion piece on 21 August 2009 titled ‘White fellas in the black’. In both articles Bolt attempts to vilify people with pale skin and who identify as Aboriginal by implying that they are frauds. Bolt uses his own brand of genetic rhetoric of eye, hair, and skin colour to support his claims.

There’s a certain kind of inverse irony with Bolt’s racial views. Readers may remember the 1978 made-for-television film, ‘Holocaust’, about the attempted genocide of European Jewry by the Nazis during World War 2. In it there was a scene which depicted Himmler, the head of the SS, witnessing the execution of captured Jews by shooting. As the naked prisoners were being lined up prior to being shot, Himmler noticed a young man who to Himmler didn’t appear to be Jewish. Himmler called him over to ask him if he was Jewish. The young man readily identified himself as Jewish to which Himmler then responded: “Then I’m sorry, but there’s nothing I can do for you”. The youth then returned silently to his place at the execution pit where he and the others lined up with him were then shot. For the Jewish youth who was murdered, his Jewish identity was so important to him that he was prepared to lose his life for it despite the opportunity of possibly saving himself from dying that particular day.

For Aboriginal people, racial identification is also important. It may not be about life or death today, but it may well be about the survival or demise of Aboriginal heritage in the future if the likes of racists like Andrew Bolt are successful in denying those that identify as Aboriginal of their heritage.

5 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Damian,

Please forgive the diversion, but I'd like to sound you out on a question thats a recurrent theme in talks here that your experience may be able to assist with.

Q. For many years we've been told by many 'experts' that Australia needs the U.S 'alliance' as without its 'umbrella' we'd be more vulnerable.In effect the yanks subsidise our defence and provide 'sweets' like 'intelligence', technology etc.Devotees then say to offset this U.S capability if we went it alone, we'd have to spend huge amounts of what we currently do (the latest is 10 fold on our current expenditure), which is very difficult.

Do you think this is actually true?.

Indeed are the weapons we buy off them of any use to us or more useful to them as mere auxilliaries to their meddling wars?

If so, could be cancel the rubbish from them and divert these current funds into more useful kit that more directly serve us, Australia?.

I look at technology generally today and over the years and I can see the potential of much of it to 'fill the gaps' we have chosen not to fill as we prefer depend on the yanks.

Overseas AEW planes have been available since the mid '80's that are independent of the U.S.eg Fokker F.27 Kingbird.Imagine if we had a dozen of them from the late '80's here!.By now, we'd be operating second generation types eh!.

I fear the culture of dependency here has become a 'sacred cow' and we could defend ourselves at limited cost, but have talked ourselves out of it and now our 'leaders' and media lackeys can't see any other way of being.

Can you proffer any insights based on your experience on these matters mate.

A classic example of utter uselessness is Australia's purchase of 59 Abrams tanks ordered in 2004. They'd be useful for defending several hundred square kilometers of the Simpson Desert - that's about all. Clearly these tanks were meant for deployment overseas. Since we are only at war with those that the US are at war with, these tanks will only be used for the defence of America's security. Totally useless for defending Australia.

Similarly with the latest purchase of F/A 18 Super Hornets; completely useless for defending Australia. They are a strike aircraft designed for offensive operations, not defensive.

No nation has any reason to invade us. If, like the Chinese, our neighbours want something we have, then, rather than spend billions gathering a great army and invading us, it's far cheaper for them to just send an email telling us what they want, we dig it up and ship it to them and they transfer a load of loot to our miners bank accounts. Simple really.

You're right, NS; we buy this stuff for the sole purpose of defending America's interests - and to make the people who deal in this stuff much richer.

My thanks Damian for your insights, examples of which indeed make me think we're on the wrong track.

The Super Hornets are another cogent example and I recently read just how limited they are compared to Russian designs now extant.I fear similar for the uninspiring F-35 JSF too.From what you say squire, it seems that our 'leaders' now subscribe to appeasement toward the American empire as 'defence', preferring to subcontract our defence to another country rather than do the job ourselves.

I still think careful selection of equipment can offset the deficiencies we have now and in the past, where the truth is that we could adequately look after ourselves independent of the American empire, at cost similar to today, but we're just too lazy to do so.

I read now that ex-RAN submariners think we should just accept the 'dud subs' Collins class have been a failure, abandon fantasies of local design and construction and just buy a batch of German subs, cheaper, more capable and obtained faster.

I'm fed up with politicians bellowing at the public too trying to sound 'tough'.Shadow defence spokesman David Johnson, is the worst I've ever heard!.

Editor’s note: Every American should be deeply embarrassed, humiliated by President Obama’s statements regarding demands for an end to the 9/11 cover-up. 9/11 is a national disgrace. We thank Anthony Lawson for supporting Americans who are working to restore our national honor.

The four aircraft which crashed on September 11th, 2001 have never been forensically matched to the four passenger planes which were allegedly hijacked that morning. Requests under the Freedom of Information Act have met with denials and refusals, and documents which have been produced, allegedly using data from the only three "Black Box" flight recorders said to have been found, have no serial numbers of the devices listed on them....

It's good that more truth about what really happened on 9/11 is coming out, but the flip side is that the murderous SOB's who really were behind 9/11 and who start wars to kill people for fun and money, ain't going down easy.

They've murdered millions in the past and millions more after the inside job of 9/11 and if things get too hot and it looks like they might get arrested and worse, they would probably start WWIII and wind up nuking the entire planet rather than go to prison or even better, a more fitting punishment.

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is an Aeronautical Engineer, Historian and general carer of what goes on in the world.
Apart from an earlier career in engineering, Lataan also has a First Class Honours BA degree in History and a PhD in International Politics.
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